Electrical Woes Thought Bad Battery, Changed and still having trouble
 

Okay I have a 1984 300D turbo charged diesel. A few days ago i went to start and the dash lights came on glow plug lights etc, but when i went to turn the car over nothing no clicks, nothing. Hooked up my gf car and after a min or two tried car started. Next day at the mall same thing happened, asked a stranger to jump me, hooked up let the car charge a min tried and nothing, waited another 30 sec or so tried again and it started. I Figured it was a bad battery replaced the battery last night after i installed the new one went to start and still nothing. Hooked up gf's car turned and nothing, waited a bit tried again and started. I thought maybe corrosion on the terminals so poured a coke on it and scrubbed em down, still having trouble. What do you guys think?



P.S. Another electrical problem is when i first picked up the car last week one of the dims wasnt working, next day all the lights quit working. Havent replaced the bulbs, dont get paid till this friday. Any connection? What should i do?

Still Bad Help Please
 

Hey well car started fine this morning, and now i went to leave for lunch and nothing. Does that sound like a bad switch or something?

Bad ground?

Solenoid?

Does it click?

What are dims?

I had to get a longer negative cable and its damn tight,
There aren't any sort of clicks or even like a partial turn
By dims i ment the dim (not bright) lights. Went to o'reillys and they tested my system said that the alternator was putting out 16.75 v at idle, said it was probably voltage regulator. that might have been why my lights quit working, too much juice


thanks for your reply, i was losing hope

Please explain...

well im broke till next week
 

Well since i wont get paid for another week i have no money and no credit card anymore (college student). But i did have a $80 wall mart card. I had to get the 65 serious or something it has the same 850/1000 or the other way around. But when i went to install it, it didnt fit right, and the post were opposite sides, the positive was close to the fender and the negative was further so back to wal mart and a 15 inch 2 ga neg cable and a handy lil bat tie down fixed it. I made sure the negative was nice and tight. Where are the other grounds i should be looking for?

Electrical problems
 

Sounds like dirty terminals to me or corrosion on ground strap near battery.The corrosion can be deep inside of negative battery cable under cable covering or rusted under ground cable and body/frame preventing complete connection. Take the cables off, wire brush everything clean. Check for corrosion on cables. Clean battery post and cable ends. Make sure the clamps are closing completely and are not stretched out from bolt stretch.It happens. This problem has to be diagnosed from the source and then a logical path. I have seen this happen many times and it was just dirty battery terminals. If you have a voltage meter, check all electrical paths from battery to cable ends and so on. Check at alternator with key on with a wire tester at large red wire. Should be power there if all is OK . Try to get to ignition and see if you have a good connection at ignition switch at the large red wire. The power is distributed from the battery to the ignition switch and to alternator and to starter. Check the power to the starter as well. Check the fuse box with a wire tester if you do not find problem. My guess is that the clean up and a good battery will solve problem. With a diesel (no spark plugs),you will have less drain on battery thus not seeing depletion of battery stored electric.The battery if it is in good shape will actually charge itself overnight. It may start car and not show problem, but be dead at a later time. As well a corrosion caused problem may be intermittent, sort of like a loose battery cable. If you know all this stuff is clean and you have checked electrical at battery terminals off, then terminals on, at the ground and at the positive as wellas the other places that are where power goes to then you have at least established the battery is not the problem. You can then goto the next thing. Good luck and I will keep an eye on this. Later, Paul :cool:

unclemark, check the condition (length) of the voltage regulator brushes.

heespaul,

I would like an explanation how a battery will recharge itself?

BTW, GP take a lot more energy out of a battery than spark plugs do.

P E H

"poured coke on them"....to clean the battery terminals! Yes, as a "I'm stuck in the middle of no-where, what the heck kinda deal". But that is no way to "clean" a battery terminal. Makes me wonder if there was even anything wrong with your battery. Crapped up connections can produce your problem...you get enough juice to lights and radio, but not enough to crank the engine....same thing going the other way when you try to jump start, it's hard to push juice through crap.

A 2 dollar battery tool is a must for every tool box. The terminal need to be nice and shiny...new metal exposed, not just "clean"....same for the battery cables and grounds. You can't just wipe them off with a rag! I have seen guys install brand new batteries with out cleaning the terminals...you won't get a great connection!

Any time I have an "electrical problem" the first thing I do is a really good cleaning of the connections. BTW, those "no maintenance" batteries...they do need maintenance....check the water level in the cells too.

This sounds very much like a loose engine-chassis ground. Ran across similar problems when the exhaust clamp the ground strap was attached to worked loose on mine. There is only one strap and should be near the starter.

Starter solanoid, worn starter brushes, neutral transmission switch possibilities as well. Read the archives.
When a car developes an intermitent starter action the first thing I check is if the starter solinoid is getting a good 12v supply. Then activate the solinoid manually. If I still have a good supply voltage to the solinoid at this point and no starter action the problem is generally localised.
The next time it will not start tap the starter moderatly hard. If the key rotates the starter right after that take the starter off and test. Possibly worn brushes or marginal soilinoid. These are the most common senarios really with an intermitent starter.
On an older car yes bad or oxidized connections are an increasing possibility as well of course. Yet I tend to eliminate the starter from the general equation first of all. Since it is usually the most likely culprit. Eliminate it first.

Thanks for all the help, With my new job and night school im gonna have to keep jumping it till this weekend. I used coke as the cleaning jucie with my wire brush so the terminals are squeaky clean. How hard is to pull the starter?

unclemark,

U don't want to know how hard it is to remove the starter

P E H

Nest time it wont start, do the following:
There's a junction box with a plastic cover on top of the right inner fender. Jump terminals 1 and 3. If the starter works when jumped, it tells you the starter is fine and the problem is most likely the ignition switch or the neutral safety switch.
If the starter does not engage by jumping those terminals it tells you that the problem is either in the starter itself or between the junction box and the battery.
My money's on a bad ignition or neutral safety switch.

Replacing the starter is about a 1-2hr job, but you must have the right tools (ie long extensions allen socket, good breaker bar, jacks and jackstands).